Bare Feet
by STOPREADINGMYTERRIBLEFANFICS
Summary: ***NEW: CHAPTER 2*** ~~SPOILERS~~ Chapter One: Ed's thoughts on her father, and how she deals with Spike's death. Chapter 2: Appledehli's thoughts on her daughter, and his relationship with his partner, Macintyre.
1. Ed's Account

If you're looking for a wacky misadventure with Ed and Ein you're in the wrong place. There's a bit of humor, but with humor comes anguish, something that Ed is not used to. This story is an attempt to shed some light on Ed's feelings about her father, while maintaining her personality. I hope this story does justice to Ed's character, and I hope you enjoy it.

Bare Feet

The canyon ground was burning, but she didn't feel the calluses on her feet. The heat burned her skin, but she needed a blanket. The hours turned into days, which turned into weeks, yet she always had something to smile about. Radical Edward, once a loner turned member of the Bebop, was once again living on her own, with Ein as her faithful  companion, on a journey.

            Since Edward left the ship a month ago, she had been looking for her father. The only real family she had. She barely knew him, and had rarely seen him in her lifetime, but she knew she must. She had to be doing the right thing. 

But what she seemed to wonder was when would it end? How long does doing the right thing take? Will she ever find her father? 

And,_" if the father person  wanted me so much, why did he run away without me?"_

Ed's footsteps came to a complete halt. Ein stopped at Ed's heels, and whimpered in curiosity. She stared at the ground, deep in thought… things didn't seem to add up. This… "father person," he didn't seem capable of caring for Ed. He lost her, for many years, and found her, only to lose her yet again. Ed shook her head trying to rid these negative thoughts from her mind.

She remembered Faye's words."…You have someone waiting for you too. There's somewhere that you belong, Edward. You should go and find out where..."

"Don't worry, this time I'm looking for you." Ed continued walking. Ein stood in bewilderment, but followed her anyway.

__________

Nightfall came, once again. And once again the scrambling for a good place to sleep continued. Normally Ed would be fine sleeping on the hard rock under the stars, but not without an attempt to find a better spot first.

A devilish thought crossed Ed's mind.

"Oh Eiiiiiin, race you to the nearest cave?"

"Woof!"

"Oookaaaay!" She got in her running position, as Ein stood next to her. "Ready, set… GO! Ahaha!" Ed took off, Ein not too far behind. As the moon rose faster and faster, she ran faster and faster, arms flailing in the air, in hopes to find a cave nearby. She ran, and ran, and ran, as the stars stood motionless in the sky. Dust from the ground was kicked up everywhere, as her footsteps became more rapid. Her pace was very steady when compared to Ein's, who was right beside her. Alas, no shelter ever came in her sight. Ed and Ein, who had been running for a few minutes now, were both running out of breath. Ed's footsteps slowed down, as she plopped to the sandy ground, Ein not too far in front of her, had already fallen asleep.

"…You win, Ein…" Ed said as her eyes closed and she, too, fell asleep.

__________

            As the first rays of light gently touched upon Ed's face, she awoke silently. Edward stretched her arms out as far as she could, then touched her toes with the tips of her fingers. After letting out a big sigh, Edward went over to Ein.

            "Time to wake up, Ein…" she said as she shook him. Ein lay there silently. "…wake UP Ein!" Ed shook Ein more. Nothing. "WAKE UP!" Ed grabbed Ein by the front paws and threw him in the air. That woke him up. As Ein fell into Ed's arms, she could feel his heart pounding a million times a minute. "Aw, did Ed scare Ein?" Ein just stared into the horizon, motionless. "Ed is sorry." She put Ein down to his feet, however Ein, still in shock, fell sideways, still motionless, still staring into the horizon. Ein slowly picked himself  onto his feet and walked towards Ed. "Good Ein!" Ed said.

            Ed once again continued to walk, slowly reaching the endless horizon. After a few miles of walking she came across a giant crater. The crater seemed to be steaming, indicating that the comet that caused it had hit only recently.

            "Father person must be near," Ed said. She jumped inside the crater, Ein right behind her. Ed ran around, sniffing for clues. All that seemed to be there was black rocks, heaps and heaps of steaming black rocks.

            "Françoise, is that you!?"  
            Ed turned around to face the voice. It was her father, on the ground above her, calling her name.

            "Eeeee!" Ed exclaimed as she climbed the incredibly steep crater to hug her father.

            "Hey there! Ho hoo!" He embraced Edward like a father should do. This reassured her that she had made the right decision.

            "…Father…"

__________

            In a nearby tent, Edward, her father, and his assistant were all drinking tea, as they took a break from excavation.

            "So, what have you been up to?" her father asked Ed.

            "Ed has been on a looong journey! Bebop, Jet, Faye-Faye, Spike…"

            "Spike… is that the guy who tried to beat me up? Heh, I sure showed him, right, Macinroe?"

            "It's Macintyre, sir…"

            "Eh whatever."

"And here is my bestest friend!" Ed grabbed Ein, and lifted him up above her head. "Hello, Ein! Say hello to father!" She propped Ein so that he would be facing Ed's father.

            "Woof!"  
            "Is that a dog?" her father asked.

            "Yup yup! Edward's faaaavorite companion! Aren't you, Ein?"

            "I see… you know, Françoise, if we're gonna be running around all day, we can't be carrying a dog around. That would just slow us down."

            "Oh but Ein is resourceful! Ein is a data-…"

            "We just can't have it. I'm sorry Françoise, but you're gonna have to let Ein go."

            "…Let Ein go?" Ed looked at Ein, who had a sad look on his face. He knew exactly what was going on. "Edward's only friend?"

            "You have me now! What more could you ask for? I know I couldn't ask for more…"

            Ed continued to stare at Ein.

            "Ein and Ed need some rest." Ed grabbed Ein and walked out of the tent, and fell to the ground. She curled up, and tried to fall asleep. "Edward love Ein, but… Edward also love father…"

            Then Ed began to think realistically about it.

            "Edward… love father… Edward love… father…" She repeated this to herself. "Edward… love father?"

            _Ed remembers… Ed was playing with my friend… then Ed's friend left. Then the other kids left… and… Ed was the only one there. Ed cried, and cried… But Ed found a new home... Ed made new friends, and forgot about father. Father left me… father left me… father didn't care about me. And father still doesn't care._

"Father person didn't care at all…" Images of Jet, Faye and Spike flashed in her mind. "Father person isn't like Jet … Jet never left me."

Ed rolled to her other side to see her father talking with his assistant, and laughing.

"Father person doesn't need me," Edward thought to herself. "…And Ed doesn't need father person either." Ed tried not to dwell, as she slowly fell asleep. 

__________

"TIME TO WAKE UP!" Ed's father hollered in her ear.

"Ack!" Edward exclaimed as she jumped to her feet.

"Come on, Françoise! We've got a big day ahead of us! We've got to search for new land formations in the earth! Come on, not a second to lose!" Just then a comet came hurdling to the ground in the distance. "There's our first target! Let's go!" He grabbed his things and began to run. "Come on, Macintosh!"

"It's Macintyre!"

"Edward can track the comets on the computer!" Edward pulled out her laptop and began typing. Her fingers moved at the speed of light. "Right here, here and here! Hehehe!"

Her father and Macintyre stood in bewilderment at what Ed was doing…

"Aw come on, Ed! You can't trust computers! Besides, you have no idea what you're doing. Come on, let's go find that meteor!"

"…Bebop always needed Edward's help…"

"Yes, but you don't need to be with those lowlifes anymore. You're with me now, Edward! Your flesh and blood! This is where you belong!"

_"It's the best...belonging is the very best thing there is..."_

"This is not where Edward belongs! Edward belongs with the people that need Edward!" she screamed, almost hysterical. "Edward belongs with the people that care for Edward! Edward belongs with the people that don't ever forget her!" Edward slowly lifted her head. "Edward… doesn't belong here."

"…Edward… I'm your father…"

"…You're not my father… you're my father person. Goodbye." Edward grabbed her things in one arm, and grabbed Ein in the other, and starting running. To where she did not know, for what reason, she was unsure of. She just needed to be away. Maybe in hopes of finding the Bebop one day.

But… no matter what she would find, she would walk first.

__________

Walk she did, and once again, minutes turned into hours, which turned into days. Edward made sure she walked in the opposite direction from which she came, in hopes of finding some sort of life other than that of her father's. And to her surprise, she did just a few days after she had left. One of the few remaining towns left on earth was kept under a strong dome that could withstand anything, even a meteor.

Edward slowly walked into the town, dragging her seemingly heavy feet across the street to the nearest inn. Ed slowly walked into the building with Ein and stood for a second or two… then passed out onto her back.

A few minutes later, Ed woke up to Ein's licks on her face, and many townspeople staring at her in awe.

"W-what happened?" She questioned.

"Are you all right!?" someone asked.

"Do you need anything?" another person asked.

"Someone call a doctor!"

Edward focused her attention on the small television located on the counter in front of her where she saw what she never dreamed of seeing.

_"In other news, there are new leads with the police today as of what caused famous bounty hunter _Spike Spiegal's death." Those last three words echoed forever in Edward's mind.

"Spike… dead?" Edward questioned… "Spike… not dead!… Spike alive! No! It can't be true!"

Edward scrambled to her feet, grabbed her things and ran back outside, and ran and ran into an uncivilized area. She sat down, took out her computer, and logged onto the bounty hunter database. She hadn't gone into this site since she left the Bebop.

"S-P-I-K-E…" she typed, "S-P-I-E-G-A-L…" Sure enough, a picture of Spike appeared, with an inscription next to it.

"SPIKE SPIEGAL: 2044-2071" 

"Edward… confused… Spike is really… gone?" She stared at the picture for a little while. She knew she had to have an emotion, but she didn't know what it was. She just… stared. Her eyes shifted from Spike's picture, to the inscription next to it, back to the picture, in an endless cycle that lasted for hours. 

Ein crawled up on Edward's lap. He rested his head on Edward's leg. All of a sudden, Edward felt a wet drop on her leg. She broke out of her state of shock and looked at Ein, who had been crying.

"Edward's leg… is wet…" Ein shed another tear onto Edward's leg. Edward whispered to herself. "Ein is crying… because Spike is dead…" And then it hit her. "Spike is… dead. Spike is never coming back," she said to herself, as her voice quivered uncontrollably. Edward looked at Spike's picture one last time, and then shut her computer off. Edward wrapped her hands around her body began to tremble. "Edward's friend is gone forever." Everything became blurry. This was a sensation that she had forgotten, a sensation she hadn't experienced since she was a child.

Edward then noticed her cheeks were wet.

            "Now… Edward is… crying…" she said, sniffling. 

Edward hugged Ein, as they both cried throughout the night.


	2. Appledehli's Account

I was originally going to make "Bare Feet" a one chapter story, but I really wanted to show Appledehli's side of the story during the time of the first chapter. Macintire has some stuff to say too, believe it or not ^_^ Anyway, I hope this clears things up (if there was any confusion in the first place), and the intro (in italics) is a scene from episode 24, "Hard Luck Woman." Please, enjoy, and review when you are finished. Thank you.

Bare Feet

Appledehli's Account

The ship came to a complete stop right before Spike and Appledehli. Ed's father emerged from the top of the ship, as she looked down on the faintly familiar man standing in front of the ship.

            Appledehli looked up at the curious child, and then with a wide grin, he exclaimed her name, "Françoise!"

            Ed topped her father's grin with an all out, ear to ear smirk, then jumped off the top of the ship, into her father's arms. After a minute or two of playfully throwing Ed around, they both walked over to the curious Jet and Spike, watching in awe.

            Ed introduced Appledehli. "This is father-person."

            "Father…?" Spike asked.

            "Your father?" Jet followed up.

            "She had such a thing?" Spike asked again.

            Ed looked at her father and introduced the two men. "This is Spike-person and Jet-person.

            "I see…" Appledehli said as he walked over to Spike, who had previously been fighting with him. He then smashed his head into Spike's, knocking him over flat on his back.

            "No father, good person," Ed corrected her father.

            "Oh? I see. Thank you for taking care of my son… or was it daughter? Oh well, it's all right either way." Appledehli placed a basket of eggs on Spike's body. "That's a token of my appreciation." Appledehli then turned to Ed, and asked, ""So, you wanna come with me?"

            "Huh?" Ed stared at her father. This seemed so sudden, she couldn't respond. They both stared at each other for a couple of seconds in pure silence.

            "Aaaaaah!" Macintyre exclaimed. Just then a meteor crashed onto the Earth in the distance.

            "Hurry, Michael-duck!" Appledehli exclaimed. 

            "That's Macintyre!"

            "Wait!" Jet yelled.

            And with that, they were off. As they drove off, Appledehli could faintly hear Ed exclaim, "Father!" But with his mind on the current global situation, he thought nothing of it.

______________________    

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Appledehli was just finishing excavating the latest meteorite site for Macintyre to input on the map in his computer.

"There, finished!"

Macintyre, with a grin, brought his tools over to the site and set them up. With the push of a few buttons on Appledehli's part, they both waited and watched the screen, as it uploaded the new information.

"NOW UPDATED!" flashed on the monitor.

"Another one down. This job never ends…" Macintyre said.

"That it doesn't, Makleberry, but we're both having fun, right?" Appledehli asked.

Macintyre sighed, and then began his next sentence with an all too familiar phrase. "It's Macintyre, sir… and I'm starting to wonder if what we're doing has any point."

"Eh? How do you figure, McDonald?" the clueless Appledehli asked.

"Macintyre!" He took a deep breath, wondering what it would take for him to remember his name. "The earth's population is down to a mere few million people, each huddled in their own protective glass dome, away from civilization. Meteors are crashing into the Earth every second of every day, we don't even get time to sleep. Don't you understand that they are never gonna stop falling? And that no one cares what the earth looks like any more?"

Appledehli stared blankly at Macintyre… blinked a few times, and responded. "You're not making any sense, Makidilly."

Macintyre wanted to scream, but instead just closed his eyes and clenched his fists.

"You don't know how important what we're doing is to society!" Appledehli said with a grin. "You should be grateful you're with me, this job is the most important thing in both of our lives!"

"More important than your daughter too, I assume…" Macintyre mumbled…

"What?" Appledehli asked.

"Nothing, Mr. Appledehli," Macintyre said as he took a puff of his cigarette.

"Hmm…" Appledehli gathered his excavating tools and placed them in the cart. "Hey, I wonder how my son… err… daughter… anyway, I wonder how she's doing."

Macintyre rolled his eyes. There was so much he wanted to say to Appledehli but couldn't, for fear of being left behind. "You've been talking about your daughter since I met you… months ago. You knew that you'd one day be reunited with her, but you just always seemed to put the search on hold. She's your own daughter for crying out loud! And then you finally meet her, by chance, and yet you lose her once again, due to meteor showers. If I were in your own shoes, I'd…"

"Macadamia!"

"…Huh?"

Appledehli looked up to the sky. "Do you ever wonder what my child is up to?"

Macintyre stared at his cigarette for a little while. "What kind of question is that?"

______________________    

That night, which was really early the next morning, the duo decided to take a short break, something that was a rare occurrence during their time together. A rather large tent was set up for them both as they tried their hardest to get some rest. This gave Appledehli some time to think, for once.

"Françoise… huh… I wonder where you are. You just keep wandering off, without a care in the world! Heh… but that's the way you always were. Still, I'd like to see you again… I'd like for you to join me, because… we never get to spend time together. You're my child, for crying out loud! It seems that whenever I search for you, I can't find you. Then you wander in, and wander back out without my knowledge. If only I knew where you were. Françoise… I…"

CRASH!

Another meteorite had fallen to the ground.

"Macinto! Wake up! Time to get going!"

"But… it's the middle of the night… come on, give it a rest…"

"Rest is for amateurs! We're pros, remember!? Let's get going!" He grabbed Macintyre by the arm and dragged him out of the tent. Together they packed up all of their belongings, jumped in the cart and were on their way again.

"What was I thinking about?" Appledehli thought to himself. "Oh yeah, another few meteors and I get a promotion!"

Appledehli drove the cart towards the site of the collision, which was a rather long distance. In the back seat, Macintyre was fast asleep. There was enough time for the sun to gradually rise as they reached the crater.

"Wow!" Appledehli jumped out of the cart. "Look at the size of this one, MacDaddy!"

Macintyre rubbed his eyes… "It's… Macintyre." He managed to crawl out of the cart and drag his sleepy body to the crater. He stared at it for a minute, rubbed his forehead, then fell to his back, sleeping again.

"Heheh, well I'M not gonna waste any time!" He took out his pick and began excavating. "Come on, Mclynn! Times a wasting, I'm gonna need all the help I can get with this sucker!"

Macintyre woke up from his extremely brief nap, and crawled closer to the crater to get a better look at Appledehli.

"Eh… Excuse me, Mr. Appledehli… but I really think we both could use some rest."

Appledehli, still hacking away, didn't take the time to look back at Macintyre, but said anyway, "Rest! Rest is for-…"

"Amateurs… I know. That's not the point." They both stared at each other for a minute or so. "Listen, we're both human, doesn't that count for something!?" They stared at each other some more.

"Fine, go set up the tent."

______________________    

"Tea, Mr. Appledehli?" Macintyre brought a pot over to him.

"Why thank you. Egg, Mr. Maclock?"

Macintyre stared at the basket of eggs Appledehli held in front of him. "…No."

"Okay, your loss!" He cracked an egg open and sucked the insides out.

Just then, Macintyre saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye. He quickly turned his head to the side to see the silhouette jump inside the crater. There was a smaller creature following it.

"Uh… what was that?" Macintyre asked Appledehli.

"Huh?" Appledehli separated his mouth from his teacup and turned his head to the direction that Macintyre was looking at. "Excavators… trying to beat us to the punch? I'll have to put a stop to that."

He walked over to the crater to see what, or who, was inside. To his surprise, he saw his own daughter, Ed, inside the crater. 

"Françoise, is that you!?"  
Ed turned around to face the voice. She seemed very surprised to realize that it was her father that was calling her name.

 "Eeeee!" Ed exclaimed as she climbed the incredibly steep crater to hug her father.

"Hey there! Ho hoo!" He embraced Edward like he thought a father would normally do. 

"…Father…"

______________________    

In the nearby tent, Appledehli, Ed and Macintyre were all drinking tea, as they took a break from excavation.

"So, what have you been up to?" Appledehli asked Ed.

"Ed has been on a looong journey! Bebop, Jet, Faye-Faye, Spike…"

The last name hit an unusual chord with Appledehli. "Spike… is that the guy who tried to beat me up? Heh, I sure showed him, right, Macinroe?"

He sighed again. "It's Macintyre, sir…"

"Eh whatever."

"And here is my bestest friend!" Ed grabbed Ein, and lifted him up above her head. "Hello, Ein! Say hello to father!" She propped Ein so that he would be facing Ed's father.

"Woof!"  
"Is that a dog?" Appledehli asked. If there was one thing that he didn't like, it was creatures. Especially dogs.

"Yup yup! Edward's faaaavorite companion! Aren't you, Ein?"

"I see…" He struggled to come up with a reason why Ed didn't need a dog. "You know, Françoise, if we're gonna be running around all day, we can't be carrying a dog around. That would just slow us down."

 "Oh but Ein is resourceful! Ein is a data-…"

"We just can't have it." In his mind he knew he would regret snapping at Edward, however he felt very strongly about his opinion on animals. "I'm sorry Françoise, but you're gonna have to let Ein go."

"…Let Ein go?" Ed looked at Ein. "Edward's only friend?"

Appledehli tried his hardest to try and regain some love that he had lost many years ago. "You have me now! What more could you ask for? I know I couldn't ask for more…"

Ed continued to stare at Ein.

"Ein and Ed need some rest." Ed grabbed Ein and walked out of the tent, and fell to the ground. She curled up, and tried to fall asleep. 

Macintyre, who had witnessed the entire ordeal, took the cigarette from his mouth to ask Appledehli a question. "You know, you're risking your relationship with your daughter over a silly mutt. If I were you, I would take the dog in order to keep the daughter if that's what it takes."

"Grr… I just don't like dogs. They're mean to me."

Macintyre gave the look of death to Appledehli. "Mean… to you?"

"And plus, they really are a pain to look after! Even more so than you! Ahahahaha!"

"Hmm…" Macintyre looked over to Edward, who was tossing and turning, then said to himself, "…you're gonna lose her…"

The time passed, and they all eventually fell asleep.

_______________________    _

"TIME TO WAKE UP!" Appledehli hollered in her ear.

"Ack!" Edward exclaimed as she jumped to her feet.

"Come on, Françoise! We've got a big day ahead of us! We've got to search for new land formations in the earth! Come on, not a second to lose!" Just then a comet came hurdling to the ground in the distance. "There's our first target! Let's go!" He grabbed his things and began to run. "Come on, Macintosh!"

"It's Macintyre!"

"Edward can track the comets on the computer!" Edward pulled out her strange contraption and began typing on its keys. Her fingers moved at the speed of light. "Right here, here and here! Hehehe!"

Appledehli and Macintyre stood in bewilderment at what Ed was doing…

"Aw come on, Ed! You can't trust computers! Besides, you have no idea what you're doing. Come on, let's go find that meteor!"

"…Bebop always needed Edward's help…"

"Yes, but you don't need to be with those lowlifes anymore. You're with me now, Edward! Your flesh and blood! This is where you belong!" Appledehli panicked as he tried to pick up the missing pieces. 

"This is not where Edward belongs! Edward belongs with the people that need Edward!" she screamed, almost hysterical. "Edward belongs with the people that care for Edward! Edward belongs with the people that don't ever forget her!" Edward slowly lifted her head. "Edward… doesn't belong here."

"…Edward… I'm your father…"

"…You're not my father… you're my father person. Goodbye." Edward grabbed her things in one arm, and grabbed Ein in the other, and ran away… again.

_"…you're gonna lose her…"_

Appledehli stared at Ed as she ran closer and closer to the horizon.

"You lost her," Macintyre said.

He continued to stare until she disappeared.

"Eh… I'll find her. In the end, I always do, right? Heh… oh well. Time to get back to work. Let's go."

Macintyre clenched his teacup… "No…"

"What?" Appledehli questioned as he turned around. "Come on, Macinster, we've got a lot of work to do!"

"It's MACINTYRE! And you know what? You won't find her! Because she always finds you! She gave up everything just to find you, and you ward her off as if she was just a stray cat! You'll probably never see her again!"

"This isn't funny! We've got a lot of work to do!"

"GAH! That's why you'll never see her again! All this time I've been with you, that was the only thing on your mind. And you know what? That's why you'll never see me again!" He grabbed his bag and walked in the same direction that Ed was walking in, hopefully never to see Appledehli again.

"…Macintyre?"

He turned his head. "Thanks." Then continued walking.

As of this moment in time, Appledehli had nothing. Everything he knew in life was gone, from his only daughter, to his only acquaintance. Macintyre left, in hopes that Appledehli would realize what he had lost, and come to his senses.

Instead, he gathered his tools, and went to the next excavation site.


End file.
